Facebook taken to court by 25,000 people over privacy

25,000 people are suing Facebook in a class-action lawsuit that kicks off today over alleged privacy violations.

The lawsuit will be heard in Vienna district court as Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems presents his case against Facebook for allegedly tracking users’ data illegally.

Today, the case will be in a preparatory hearing to decide whether the Austrian court is determined as fit to hear the case and it will decide whether the allegation can be officially declared a class-action suit.

Originally filed in Vienna’s Commercial Court, the case was rejected and referred to the regional court.

The suit which was launched in 2014 has attracted large numbers of users who wanted to be involved in claiming their share of the damages, but was limited to 25,000 people. The amount being claimed is a ‘token level’ of £360 (€500).